MIA!

Sorry that I have been missing from the blogosphere the last few days!  I have been swamped, and that is no exageration. Work has been so busy that I have not been able to get anything done, if that makes any sense.  I go in with a set agenda of things that I hope or need to accomplish and then I am bombarded with so much other stuff when I get there that it leaves no time for me to work on my 'to do' list!  And everything needs to get done. 
Home is similarly busy, but in a much less stressful way. 

So, where were we?  I guess when we last left off, we had finished up at the Pittsburgh Zoo.  The next day we spent at Idlewild Park and Splash Zone, which was a lot of fun.  Bella was fearless.  She has decided that she is pretty much done with the kiddie rides and moved up to the big kid rides.  She loves them!  The faster, the better.  We went on one water slide where you went on a tube down a tube that and were plunged into complete darkness, spinning around at great speeds, and to tell you the truth I was a little tense.  Bella?  She plunged into the bottom pool laughing and smiling asking to do it again!  It was a long day, but we all had a lot of fun. 
So that was the end our the vacation.  Then it was back to reality, and boy can that hit you right smack dab in the face!  Oh, how I miss that peacefull beach retreat right about now...
Not that the fun and games are all over, oh far from it.  Saturday morning Michelle treater herself, Bella and me to a manicure and pedicure.  Bella was so excited, her first mani-pedi!  She had looked forward to this experience for some time.  She was so cute too.  She watchedevery move the girl was making and she practically had to lay on the chair to get her feet in the water!  Ha!  Too funny.  I just love getting a pedicure, there is something so relaxing about having someone massage and buff your feet and legs.  Heavenly! 

But that was all a precurser to Sunday.  Sunday was a special day indeed.  One we had looked forward to for a long time.  What did we do  you ask?  Well, on Sunday morning we all got in our Sunday best and headed down the road with this place as our destination:

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Isn't it beautiful?  Sitting right along the Potomac River, next door to the Watergate Apartment building sits the stately Kennedy Center.  Bella's first time there.  We waited outside for a few minutes for Jim to park the car and a cab pulled up front and who should alight from that cab?  That's right-Tim!  He was going to join us on our grand adventure.  The five of us together for the day!  What a grand day. 

Then we went inside and Bella was in awe.  We walked through the hall of Nations and she looked up the whole time holding Michelle's hand and said in the cutest voice "Mama, look at all the flags!  There's got to be like a hundred!"  She just loved it.  Then we went upstairs to have lunch at the cafe.  We had tried to get reservations at the Terrace Restaraunt but the were booked, but we had a nice lunch never the less.  Then it was on to the main event.  What we had been waiting anxiously to see.  Bella's first introduction to real theatre.

And it was magical.  Practically Perfect in every way!  The show was just wonderful, so much fun, a true delight.  And the best part of all, watching the delight on the face of our darling girl.  Oh, how she loved it! 

She left the theatre singing SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPALIDOCIOUS!  And she hasn't stopped talking about it since.  She loved the tap dancing and was amazed (as we all were) by the way Bert tapped on the ceiling while singing!  Amazing!  She loved to watch Mary Poppins fly and was truly delighted at the end when she flew out over the audience.  It was a spectacular show and one that I am sure she will remember. 

But our day didn't end there.  We dropped Tim off at the Metro and we drove around DC a bit and then parked the car and walked a little.  We had dinner reservations at 5:30 and didn't want to be late because our chef for the evening was very special indeed.  You guessed it, we dined at TenPenh in DC and Tim cooked for us.  The place is beautiful and the food was delicious!  Asian-fusion style.  Mmmm! 

This is an image of the main dining room and you can just see the kitchen there in the back.  It's really pretty. 

We were treated very well by everyone in the place and we left with very full bellies!  Good thing that we had to walk a way back to the car. 

Well, it is Thursday already!  Another weekend right around the corner.  Getting ready for Bella to go back to school in another week or so.  She can't wait! 

Hopefully I'll get back to crafting and posting some pages and crafts!